drawing of a side profile of a face with their mouth open. The text says "She is Confident" with the Her Power! Her Pride! logo in the corner

Her Power! Her Pride!

Her Power! Her Pride! is a program focused on Girls and Women with Disabilities 

Her Power! works directly with girls with disabilities through a unique, four-day, overnight event designed to promote critical thinking about society’s messages, eliminate shame, develop leadership skills and encourage self-acceptance. This event is built on the best practices of the disability justice community and emerging research in female development and goes beyond self-esteem programming to provide a venue for real self-empowerment.

Our work is based in disability pride. We promote these radical notions:

  • People with disabilities are not broken.
  • There is no reason to feel shame associated with disability.
  • All people should be able to embrace their unique differences and accept all aspects of who they are as individuals.
  • The work to end gender violence includes working to end systems of oppression, including but not limited to: racism, classism, sizeism, ableism, sexism, heterosexism, etc.

We are proud to say that Her Power! Has been implementing programs for over a decade and has positively impacted over two hundred disabled girls’ lives in Michigan over this time. With that said, we are currently working to expand our work to a national level to include girls from across the country. Her Power! planned for a national Her Power to launch in 2020 but did not move forward due to COVID-19. We hope to expand our program to include girls from across the country in the near future.

Her Power! Her Pride! is a program for women and girls with disabilities. Our definition of women and girls programs includes cis-women, trans-women, femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer, and non-binary folks. Our definition is meant to be inclusive; if you feel this does not include you, please reach out to us.

About the Her Power! Her Pride! Overnight Event

The weekend moves beyond a program focused on “self-esteem.” Every topic from why we may feel bad when we look at ourselves in the mirror, to why we believe walking is a superior mode of movement over rolling is explored. We look at who tells us these lies, and what we can do to dismantle them. As a group, we explore what it means to be a girl teen with a disability in today's world. We challenge stereotypes and shatter myths about what it means to be a girl with a disability through interactive art-based activities.

Our training topics include:

Identity, body issues, how media perpetuates girl bullying, violence against women and their bodies, role models, and social change.

Learn more about this collaborative program with LETA Solutions.

Our Funding

Her Power! Her Pride! is made possible by individual donations and funding from Michigan Disability Rights Coalition and Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council.

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Donate

MDRC is partnered with
Network For Good.

Network For Good allows you
to choose how and when to donate.

Donate

MDRC is partnered with
Network For Good.
Network For Good allows you
to choose how and when to donate.